You are clearly confusing Mike Vand*e*man (no “r” there) with mountain biker, Thomas Vanderham (the Freudian slip of many mountain bikers, I note: Mike… Vander*ham*, Vander*man*, etc.) THOMAS Vander*ham* is simply an environmentally destructive freerider. He says he likes to ride big bikes on wet trails. Like a knife to butter, Vanderham’s big bikes slice and dice the forest trails. Not very nice, East Bay.

Are you kidding me? Why do people target the minority (translation – young ignorant kids who say they love to ride and slide in the wet) instead of acknowledging the bigger picture which is the biking population at large (freeriders, downhillers, road riders, weekend warriors or whatever). This group of self-propelled enthusiasts is better than an obese, ignorant population that would rather use excessive fossil fuels to “fuel” their pass-times (read 4x4ing, ATVing, motorbiking, shopping at the mall!). It’s in everyone’s best interests that we use our forests for a multitude of recreation activities so that we gain a better appreciation for them and consequently protect them versus turning an ignorant eye and watching them disappear to the forestry industry as we lay sedentary playing Wii! Please reconsider who you should be targeting and leave Vanderham alone. He’s done more for kids and biking than the average couch potato.

Mountain bikes are only considered “self-propelled” on the climb up a forested slope. They are not at all “self-propelled” racing down it at yahoo speed! That is where mountain bikes create the most damage to the forest floor.
A true “self-propelled” enthusiast would be a hiker inside the same forest. This hiker could self-propel him/herself over logs, rocks and other forest ground. Hikers are much more nimbler on foot, than those on mountain bikes. When hiking, there is no need to heavily modify the forest floor to enhance the experience of this foot-propelled past-time, unlike invasive off-road biking that find rocks and roots to be a life-changing hazard. Understand? Your argument fails on many counts,”mistymudd”.

Vanderham doesn’t care about the kids, like you think he does. He is just making sure his sport of choice survives, and that there is enough young blood around to carry on its lifestyle/cult…

Only 4% to 6% of the general population mountain bike, according to a few recreational stats, you know — the same percentage who ski and snowboard. But unlike skiing and snowboarding, mountain biking refuses to be contained or restrained. And that is what makes it so dangerous for our children. Yes, Vanderham may have done a lot for kids and biking. But it is definitely not healthy.

Does the movie address mountain bikers who aren’t freeriders? I love to MTB but I too dislike “constructed” trails with unnecessary obstacles, ladders, and jumps. To me that is not mountain biking. To some it is, which is fine, but not to all.

Hikers who think they leave less trace than mountain bikers like me are kidding themselves. You’re using a trail, aren’t you? You’re leaving footprints on the trail (and in many places, churning it into a mudhole) and leaving your waste behind (unless you pee/poo in a bag and carry it out, which you don’t). Your impact is similar, if not more, to mine (my tire tracks at least allow water to drain off the trail).

I don’t want to encounter ANYONE in the wilderness, but I have to deal with it when it happens. It would be my choice whether or not to let it “ruin my experience”. Hikers, you have to deal with it too whether you approve of the method of getting there or not. If seeing a bike “ruins your experience,” that is 100% up to you. Your reaction to seeing a bike is your own responsibility.

Since when have adults become so unable to cooperate or share, or utilize critical thinking, or frame anything in other than “us vs. them?”

I think this movie is going to suck. It will biased and spew disinformation and unsupported facts. The only thing true in this movie is the title, “The Forest Belongs To Us”. The forests do belong to us, the American people. We own the forests and they are the “land of multiple uses”. Mountain bikers have every right to do what they do. Trails are such a small footprint on the land, I don’t understand the uproar. My question is, if you are so concerned over the “destruction of the forest” by mountain bikers then why don’t you focus your energy on the destructive practices of the logging industry.

Small footprint? I’m watching a small local park become devoid of ground vegetation, its earth becoming very compacted by all the mountain biking riding going on inside it. Sadly, there are no resources to enforce the rules of the park, so these mountain bikers purposely have taken over, disobeying the rules, tearing down signs they do not like, etc. etc.

The trees have been damages and are starting to falling down. I think that many mountain bike videos suck (especially those produced by IMBA) because they are very biased and spew disinformation and use unsupported facts. The “woods may belong to us” all, but that does not mean your bike, motor bike, ATV has the same right. Capisce? Perhaps its time the general public find out that mountain bikes are not so “green” after all.

Are you going to interview Mike Vandeman once he is in jail? http://sites.google.com/site/accusedcriminalhiker/ He is such a hypocrite: “Violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: It is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds. Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood. … Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose falsehood as his principle.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, as quoted here: http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/mtb17

I used to have a certain amount of respect for Mr. Vandeman. Not any more. I suggest either editing out his segments in your documentary, or at least adding interviews with his victims. His jury trial for felony assault with a deadly weapon is scheduled for January 14, 2011, 9AM, Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse, Oakland, California, unless it is further postponed, which seems to be the nature of this, dragging out his last few weeks of freedom and/or adding temporal distance between the crime and the trial, to cause memories to become hazy.

There are interesting similarities between Mike Vandeman and Ted Kaczynski, but the latter is a much better writer.

this is a terrible video **DISPLAYING** the non bikers to the healthy benefits of biking…what is “bikerider” saying? This sentence does not make any sense at all. Too bad there are not enough “biker porn” videos around to satisfy this mountain biker. “bikerider” needs to take a shot at one of the few that are supposed to be speaking for the environmentalists — or have we all assumed wrongly (from the comment made by the “admin”?) And, yes, this film is taking far too long to come out, already. Get on with it!